


Portrait of the Artist

by secondhandpenguin



Category: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Genre: Angst, M/M, One-Sided Basil/Dorian, Poetry, Religious Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 13:25:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17684321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secondhandpenguin/pseuds/secondhandpenguin
Summary: Basil’s confession scene as a poem.





	Portrait of the Artist

**Author's Note:**

> Rating could probably be G but I wanted to be safe.

Who is it that I gaze in the eyes?  
Tell me, behind what disguise  
is that portrait hidden?  
For it should be forbidden  
that its eyes do not gleam like  
the ones your hair frames seem

to; Don’t you remember our spring days?  
Mornings thick with dewy haze  
spent together side by side  
arm in arm, stride by stride?  
Every mem’ry warms me, nev-  
er static, but chokes me in this attic

Cobwebbed and dank above your estate  
The rot, rank paint  
warped, tainted by that hedon  
His smoke-filled words you have headed  
Now men turn their heads when you  
Strut your way into a room

I hear how they whisper in the halls  
once you’ve gone beyond the walls  
about what unfolds behind  
yours; Tell me, is it all lies  
or is it much more?  
Say there is naught to abhor!

Who is it that I gaze in the eyes?  
A scorched Adonis who grew  
wings and like Icarus flew  
much too close to the sun? Oh,  
Dorian, what have you done?

The paint wrinkles in place of you  
Hands bloodied where marble should be  
You say in’t your soul I see  
but I revealed mine in’t first  
‘till with sin yours has been cursed

My soul is one of Greek desire  
to paint and mold you in art  
and adore you with all my heart  
longingly from a window  
and never let it show

But no longer do I see him  
in your cold, blank stare, oh  
I can’t bear it! It’s not fair!  
We must all suffer for what  
the gods have given us but

Pray, pray with me, Dorian  
Confess and He will forgive  
Confess as I have and live  
‘till we age and see the light  
Faithful until us He strikes


End file.
